Flowers for Gregoire – from Tim Eyman

At an Olympia bill signing ceremony Wednesday, initiative guru and frequent Chris Gregoire critic Tim Eyman gave the governor a bouquet of flowers.

Eyman (seattlepi.com file photo)

He wished her good luck in the future and hoped she’d “do the right” thing about performance audit bills. Gregoire thanked Eyman.

In 2005 an Eyman established a dedicated source of funding for enhanced state audits of government operations. The 2011-13 state budget transfers about $8 million out of performance audits to pay for investigations in other areas.

Gregoire said she didn’t protect the performance audit money because the Legislature had tied her hands with the budget bill. Eyman agreed.

“100 percent of the blame for performance audits being defunded rests with the Legislature,” Eyman said.